Breath is Spirit
Breath is Spirit
We can survive without food for weeks and water for days but we cannot live without air for longer than a few minutes. Breath is our connection to life. It bridges us from Spirit to matter and back to Spirit again. We enter life on the first inhale and depart on our last exhale, and the journey in between is the bridge between life and death. Breath animates the body yet it’s not limited to form.
Spirit Breathes Too. Spirit is the Breath of Life
It is the primary respiration, the breath that breathes us into existence. Hence why breathwork is more than just a healing modality. It awakens us to Spirit. It is the doorway through to life and death. It opens us to multi-dimensional realities, to the innate wisdom of our heart and the godliness of our being.
What most people do not realize is that the doorway through to accessing higher states of consciousness is our body. If we are not in our bodies our experiences cannot be integrated. Hence why the breathwork classes I teach are all about getting into the body and not checking out. We breathe to discharge tension and trauma so that we can become more fully alive in our bodies.
Primary respiration underlies secondary respiration, which is our pulmonary breathing, the mechanism that makes sure the body is supplied with enough O2 to keep us alive. In our physiology, we have functions that work under voluntary control and others that function involuntarily. Our pulmonary system is the only function in the body that works under both voluntary and involuntary control. Breathing continues regardless of our being conscious of it. Yet we can control it to achieve different effects that enhance health to increase our vital life force, help us to relax deeply, release trapped energies stored in our nervous systems and expand states of consciousness.
In Breathwork, We Breathe to Either Down-Regulate or Up-Regulate Our Nervous Systems
In breathwork, we breathe to either down-regulate or up-regulate our nervous systems. Slow deep breathing through the nose helps the body relax and calm down in times of stress and overwhelm while the faster open mouth breathing activates to promote release. Both styles recalibrate the body back to wholeness and Spirit. This is not surprising when you learn that the root word of breath is ‘spir’; spir-it, in-spir-e, re-spir-ation, a-spir-e.
In both Somatic Breath and Breathwork Release, we use deep connected breathing to activate the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). In Breathwork Release we breathe through the mouth to activate the SNS just enough to trigger a response that supports the body to release what it’s ready to let go of. Movement, sound, touch, and emotional expression are highly encouraged in this method to help the body unwind.
In Somatic breath, we breathe slow deep cycles through the nose to help overactive nervous systems learn how to slow down, down-regulate and find peace inside again. We also expand the capacity of our lungs to increase our oxygen levels. Over breathing is a common practice that creates dis-ease. When we anchor the breath, slow it down and breath LESS, we are able to offload more O2 into our cells and therefore promote better health.
Join Nirmoha’s Breathwork classes to experience the different breathing techniques yourself and what they can do for you.
About the author
Nirmoha works co-creatively to help people access the subtle and gentler ways to release through conscious connection with oneself. She has spent the last three decades exploring different modalities as part of her own journey towards healing.
She is a certified Breath Trauma Release practitioner with the biodynamic breath Institute, using many skills to support your journey towards a safe and gentle transformative release Nirmoha is passionate about sharing her work with those ready to receive. She brings the depth of her own exploration by skillfully helping others explore their inner selves on their journeys toward health, wholeness, personal empowerment and truth.
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